Gaming terminals, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options.
Consequently, shrewd operators strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines available because such machines attract frequent play and, hence, increase profitability to the operator. In the competitive gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to produce new types of games, or enhancements to existing games, which will attract frequent play by enhancing the entertainment value and excitement associated with the game.
One concept that has been successfully employed to enhance the entertainment value of a game is that of a “secondary” or “bonus” game which may be played in conjunction with a “basic” game. The bonus game may comprise any type of game, either similar to or completely different from the basic game, and is entered upon the occurrence of a selected event or outcome of the basic game. Such a bonus game produces a significantly higher level of player excitement than the basic game because it provides a greater expectation of winning than the basic game.
Gaming machines have also utilized a variety of input devices for receiving input from a player, such as buttons and touch screen devices. However, these input devices are limited in that they can receive only one input at a time from the player. For example, if a player touches a single-point sensing device such as a single-point touch screen device at two distinct points simultaneously, only one coordinate is provided by the touch-screen driver corresponding to one of the distinct points only or to a single average point between the two points. The inability of the player to interact with the gaming machine and other players by providing multiple inputs simultaneously is a significant disadvantage to gaming machines heretofore. In order to address such issues, multi-point touch displays have been introduced recently. The use of such devices allows player gestures to be interpreted with a wider range of motions and therefore increase player immersion into the game. However, one issue with such interactive devices is an inaccurate modeling of the players' actions where gestures may be misinterpreted or one gesture may be construed as multiple gestures. Further, multi-point inputs may not accurately reflect a player's actions. The inaccurate reflection of a player gesture results in player frustration or player manipulation of the inaccurate device.
While these player appeal features provide some enhanced excitement relative to other known games, there is a continuing need to develop new features for gaming machines to satisfy the demands of players and operators. Therefore it would be desirable for a more accurate interactive interface for more accurate interpretation of player gestures.